Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Lazy Journalism - Know the Rules Before You Criticize (MMA vs. Boxing)

I wish sports reporters would do the one aspect of their job which makes them actual reporters - research - which they seem to think is too time consuming and totally beneath them. Why work when they can just record sound bytes and through social networking diarrhea regurgitate someone else’s story. At least the kooky sound byte netted their Youtube and Facebook pages a few thousand more hits despite obliterating their credibility as a journalist.
My main ire with these cud-spewing leeches is the general ignorance and bias towards trying to understand the rules of mixed martial arts and how they are designed to protect the competitors. Unless they are fans of MMA they automatically dismiss the sport as lawless; having no rules while holding boxing’s rules to such a pristine standard.
Bottom line – the rules of mixed martial arts are structured to stop a helpless fighter from taking needless, possibly career-threatening, even life-threatening punishment. It is at the referee’s behest to decide when a fighter is no longer capable of defending themselves and because the punishment they endure is slightly more severe than in boxing, an MMA referee is likely to end the fight quicker. However, in boxing, if a defenseless fighter can stand up and feign functional composure before the count of eight, they are sent back into the fight where they’re brains are allowed to absorb further punishment, usually ending up in long-term brain damage.
The facts do not lie, more boxers suffer much more severe head trauma – life altering head trauma than mixed martial artists.

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